Abstract
A Gram-positive, aerobic, non-motile actinomycete, strain MN08-A0203(T), that formed pale yellow to orange-brown colonies and non-fragmented branched substrate mycelium is described. The strain, which produced very scanty aerial mycelium-like structures and scanty formation of spherical bodies on the aerial mycelium on Bennett's agar medium, was studied in detail to determine its taxonomic position. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies, strain MN08-A0203(T) grouped with the genus Actinophytocola, being most closely related to the type strain of Actinophytocola oryzae (97.8%). Chemotaxonomic data [menaquinone MK-9(H-4); iso-C-16:0 (27 %), iso-C-15:0 (18 %), C-16:1 H (8 %), C-16:0 9-methyl (8%) as major fatty acids; glucose, galactose, ribose, arabinose, mannose, rhamnose and xylose (trace) as whole cell sugars; diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, hydroxyphosphatidylethanolamine and ninhydrin-positive phosphoglycolipids as polar phospholipids] supported allocation of the strain to the genus Actinophytocola. Furthermore, the results of DNA-DNA hybridization of strain MN08-A0203(T). with the type strain of Actinophytocola oryzae revealed that the two strains were genetically distinct from each other. Moreover, physiological and biochemical tests allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain MN08-A0203(T) from closely related species. Thus, MN08-A0203(T) represents a novel species of the genus Actinophytocola, for which the name Actinophytocola burenkhanensis sp. nov. is proposed, with MN08-A0203(T) (=NBRC 105883(T) = VTCC D9-23(T)) as the type strain.